Analyst: No impact from HOS rules

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Saying his outlook on the truckload industry remained “cautious,” Cowen and Co.’s Jason H. Seidl allowed that the new hours of service regulations still haven’t had the predicted impact on capacity and rates have not risen by much since the new rules were imposed in July.
“What we have found is that shippers continue to be able to find capacity for the most part and that carriers are still struggling to raise prices,” he wrote in an email update. “We are surprised that we have not seen a tightening of capacity, as we have started the busier shipping season recently.”
Seidl predicted capacity will get more constrictive as the economy improves, but he expects the third quarter to be as challenging for truckload carriers as the second quarter. Fuel, a shortage of qualified drivers and the impacts of the hours of service changes could all be major storylines in the third quarter, he said. - Jon Ross